


Naroch

by Demibandage



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:21:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25819522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demibandage/pseuds/Demibandage
Kudos: 3





	Naroch

I looked upwards at the 5-foot diameter hole that was made from a twenty-foot pile of stones and the flat concrete ceiling. The stones seemed to have been dragged into this part of the mossy humid damp cave as I noticed scrape marks on the hard, cold concrete ground, the cave was spacious, or was it even a cave? My physical capabilities were previously normal until an incident a couple of miles back in the cave, but I was able to climb up the collection of stones and crawl through the 5-foot diameter hole. My wound bled terribly as I climbed the stones, painting some of them red, I continued.

I was surprised when darkness met up with me on the other side again, darkness always was there but I just need to ignore it and open my eyes more, maybe. I widened my eyes and saw through the darkness more carpet and concrete down this, cave. 

I dragged my injured foot across the cave and carpet, I carried a small yellow backpack and wore a leather outfit from one of the bones a couple of rooms back, there was no weapon on the bones or me.  
The darkness increased as the pain in my bleeding leg and distance increased, I could only faintly see the figure that knelt on the side of the cave up ahead.  
The figure wasn’t like the figures in the past couple of rooms, his body wasn’t made of geometric shapes or holes, the figure looked like me. He had long dirty blonde hair, was wearing a black version of my leather outfit with a red felt noose hanging around his neck as if he escaped from punishment and his blood soaked the very noose that tried to strangle him.

He lifted his head up to face me, covered in darkness. Looking into my eyes with his deep gaze, he uttered total nonsense to me.

“You want to call me Charon but now you can’t call me anything because you don’t remember anything anymore. Isn’t that right?”

Why would I call him Charon? This is a cave, right? I responded to his nonsense.

“Who you are? Understand no I can’t, no?”

The man got up from his petty kneeling position and raised himself up to look at me directly in the eyes.

“You can’t even speak properly anymore, my name is Naroch. I’ve been waiting for you to come down this part of the hallway again.”

How does he know me? Have I really been going down this “hallway” again?

“What mean? My name equates to Ade.”

“Your name is Ade? Maybe you aren’t the person I’ve seen going down this hallway. Although I don’t know you, it seems like you have some sort of destination here so I guess I will follow you Ade. Wait a minute, your leg is bleeding.”

Naroch got down and examined my leg, he ripped off the red felt noose that he was wearing and wrapped it around my leg tightly. I winced in pain as he wrapped the red cloth around my leg.

“I wasn’t a nurse so I don’t really know if that will help, I’m sure it’ll heal eventually.” 

I stumbled along the cave with Naroch walking besides me closely as if to see when I would fall over, he didn’t seem to talk that much. For what seemed like hours and hours, I kept walking again with my silent partner Naroch down the long hallway with walls covered in moss in humid air. 

I stopped as soon as my will to overpower the pain in my leg decayed.

“Rest, rest please”

I got down on the ground and crawled towards one of the walls to rest my back on and Naroch followed and sat next to me. I opened up my yellow backpack and pulled out two tiny boxes I salvaged from a frozen box in the cave. Naroch laughed as soon as he saw the boxes 

I pulled out of my yellow backpack.

“You seem like a good hunter Ade, maybe you were a farmer or a grocery store clerk.”  
I didn’t know what Naroch meant by that but I handed him a box and opened up mine. The box contained a salad and some jerky, it was a relatively good amount of food for the amount of time me and Naroch were walking and I had a lot more in my pack just in case.  
We silently ate the meal, Naroch seemed incredibly hungry but was slowly enjoying the meal as if he hadn’t eaten in a long time. I quickly ate my meal as I wanted to get some rest and was incredibly tired.

“What’s the rush Ade? I know you’re tired but it’s good to enjoy each moment, you don’t know whether this will be your last meal or not. I thought mine was going be at a long white table with my family and friends on Thanksgiving but here I am right now.”

Thanksgiving? I don’t know what that is or why Naroch is trying to control me with his words, I just want to get some sleep and continue walking down the hall.  
I begged him to leave me alone, “Sleep I want, please Naroch.”

“Fine, go ahead then Ade. I’m going to walk around for a bit, I have a lot to think about anyways.”

Naroch got up from his sitting position besides me and stretched a bit while I laid down on the cold concrete floor, using the yellow backpack I had as a makeshift pillow which was reasonably comfortable. I felt so incredibly tired and my leg was killing me, I quickly fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

Naroch stood silently over Ade just to see if he really was truly asleep. Naroch didn’t truly know if this barbarian claiming to be named “Ade” was remotely sane so he decided to quietly steal two out of the eight boxes of food in Ade’s sack and walked the opposite direction of where Ade was heading towards.

The hallway of the abandoned underground route was so cold, Naroch didn’t really understand why or how no other human besides Ade and the person that kept calling him “Charon” has come down here. Naroch didn’t miss people, he just felt like he had to traverse through life and push them aside whether they were friends, family, or his children. 

The incident that brought him down here was just a bump in the road, maybe it was time to go up to the surface and leave before more idiots like “Ade” come down into his hall.

Naroch finally found the exit to the concrete hallway, this was the first time in a while that he left the hall and if he remembered correctly what caused this whole situation was extremely violent but not too hard to avoid. The door was wooden and completely black, there was only one time he opened this door to go in where he was right now.

Naroch jogged towards the wall besides the door.

Naroch reached into the pocket of the jacket of his suit and knelt down, he revealed a revolver from his pocket and shoved his free hand into his other pocket to count the extra bullets he stole, 10.  
The revolver was cold and heavier than he remembered the last time he used it, the revolver was three years old and the handle was beaten from the handful of times Naroch used it like a wooden paddle on savages and the sources of his current situation.

Naroch got up and lightly pressed his ear on it, the door was cold.

Naroch heard nothing on the other side.

Naroch quietly opened the door and jumped back at what he saw inside.  
The room was the normal entrance with a tiled floor, stairs, and walls illuminated with buzzing white lights in the ceiling, but what was in the room was incredibly strange even from when Naroch remembered the incident that caused him to hide.

The room had 10 separate red robed figures standing in a semicircle around the entrance, the faces behind the robes were completely hidden in darkness even with the harsh bright lights above.

Naroch pointed his revolver at the center robed figure, panting as he was out of breath from the scare of seeing these figures and the fear still hung onto his lungs and his heart pounded violently.

“Who the hell are you?”

The figures then all simultaneously lined up in rows of two and started marching towards Naroch and the door.

“Get back!”

Naroch fired, the energy of the gun firing shook Naroch’s body and he fell back but the group of robed figures kept marching towards him, the sounds of their shoes or feet echoed through the concrete cave.

“Stop!”

Naroch fired again at the first two robed figures, their bodies bent back from the impact of the bullet piercing them, but they still continued to walk towards Naroch. Naroch started running, he felt so exhausted and out of breath.

Naroch kept running down the mossy hallway, he didn’t even pay attention to the sound of the footsteps of the robed figures behind him. Naroch soon ran out of breath and stopped to catch it, he heard the footsteps behind him beating at a high tempo and increasing in volume. 

Naroch turned around, the robed figures were directly in front of him running towards him with their robed arms reaching for him.

From the robed arms that shot towards Naroch came different kinds of hands grabbing 

Naroch’s arms and legs, holding him in place.

Naroch screamed, “What are you doing to me?!”

The scream echoed through the old mossy concrete hallway, bouncing off of the walls into the darkness.

Naroch struggled, holding the revolver in his hand with an iron firm grip but the robed figures were too strong.

Naroch fired a shot at the robed figure’s face who was holding his arm holding the revolver, the figure fell backwards with the impact of the shot. The robed figure’s body slammed onto the ground which echoed through the hall.

The other figures let Naroch go immediately.

The robed figures stood still, not moving or doing anything, their faces remained hidden.

Naroch bent over and caught his breath, he was shaking in fear and didn’t understand what was going on at all. Was the outside like this to where no logic existed?

Naroch walked passed the robed figures, and then quickly turned around to see their reactions to him changing positions.  
The robed figures remained still for a couple of minutes (which felt like hours for Naroch), and then they all slowly reached for their fallen member and walked into the darkness of the mossy hallway carrying their fallen member into the unknown.

Naroch ran towards the exit, loading the spare bullets into the revolver and dropping some as he struggled to escape this concrete hell. The suit he was wearing made this incredibly uncomfortable and his red tie felt like it was choking him as his body was drowning in sweat.  
When he arrived at the open wooden door, Naroch was thankful to see that there wasn’t anyone in the entryway and he stepped into it.  
Up ahead was the ticket booth and stairs that led upwards towards whatever the outside world looked like, Naroch stopped to catch his breath and then firmly held his revolver with both of his hands.

Naroch went up the stairs, each step on the tile stairs echoed through the ancient entryway.  
At the top of the stairs, Naroch saw a brown wooden door eerily similar to one found in a suburban home which he did not remember being there at all.  
The person who called him “Charon” came down into the concrete hallway maybe two months ago, maybe he saw this doorway.

Naroch put a hand on the brass knob of the door, pointing his gun at the door in fear for what’s on the other side for there really could be anything now at this point.

Naroch turned the knob, it creaked.

Naroch turned more, it creaked.

Naroch pushed the door.  
Naroch opened it.

The other side of the door was strange.  
Outside of the small world Naroch lived in for what seem like a year, was infinite white.  
White sky and white ground were all that greeted Naroch.  
The ground felt as hard as concrete when Naroch lightly stepped on it.  
Off in the distance, Naroch swore he heard a faint hissing.  
Naroch walked away from the concrete shelter of the hallway, a wave of anxiety filled him as he turned around and saw white and white and white and white.

The hissing was louder now, and it seemed to be in a chaotic harmony.  
Naroch wanted to wake up right now, he even pinched himself but the slight pain of it couldn’t transport him away back to his boring job and life when he just had to worry about dealing with brats and idiots on the subway to and from work.  
Naroch splotch of color off on the horizon, the hissing increased.  
A roar echoed through the white plain, and a hoard of strange beings came up from the white ground and crawled, squirmed, ran, and flew towards Naroch from all sides.

Countless arms, fangs, mouths, legs, etc. flew towards Naroch, Naroch screamed and fell down on his knees crying.


End file.
